McCain Has Flipped. Will He Flop?

By Eric on February 2, 2008

Back in November, I wrote about how Mitt Romney’s flip-flops on… well, pretty much everything were hurting him in his home state of Massachusetts. Three months later, it looks like the mantle of Chief Republican Flip-Flopper has passed on to John McCain. But McCain isn’t just changing his stances on the Republican party’s core issues, like Mitt did. Now, McCain is actually opposing legislation that he wrote!

The Carpetbagger Report’s Steve Benen wants to know: How many of his own bills is John McCain prepared to vote against?

* He said this week that he’d vote against his own immigration plan.

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now, if the treaty comes to the Senate floor, he’s vowed to vote against it.

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. In 2007, to make the far-right base happy, he voted against the bill he had taken the lead on.

* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he now opposes the measure he’d backed.

* McCain used to support major campaign-finance reform measures that bore his name. In June 2007, McCain announced his opposition to a major McCain-Feingold provision.

I don’t always think it’s fair to expect politicians to never change a position on anything, especially for someone like McCain who has been in Congress forever, but there’s a difference between changing his mind and voting against bills her sponsored (and even bills with his name on them!) in the interest of pandering. It’s time for someone to call Mr. “Straight Talk” on his flip-flopping.

Of course, this begs the question, if Republican primary voters are looking for consistency, where are they going to find it?

Tags: 2008, flip-flops, John McCain, Mitt Romney

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